IU's Xavier Johnson pleads guilty to reckless driving, avoids felony charge for April arrest
BLOOMINGTON -- Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson pled guilty to reckless driving, a Class C misdemeanor, but had a felony charge of resisting law enforcement with a vehicle dismissed Tuesday at the Zietlow Justice Center, pursuant to his arrest in April.
Johnson received a 60-day suspended jail sentence, which he will not have to serve if he makes it through 360 days of unsupervised probation without incident and completes 50 hours of community service.
Johnson's attorney, Joseph Lozano, confirmed the terms of the plea agreement but declined further public comment as is his standard office policy.
An Indiana basketball spokesman did not have an immediate comment on Johnson's status when contacted Tuesday. IU coach Mike Woodson has not publicly discussed Johnson's arrest nor mentioned or indicated any punishment that Johnson might receive from the program, but the basketball program acknowledged the arrest in a statement in April.
According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Moulden on April 3 when Johnson was arrested, Moulden was driving southbound on College Avenue in Bloomington from the Ind. 45/46 Bypass when he saw a Gray 2019 Dodge Charger traveling northbound on Walnut Street at an extremely high rate of speed. Moulden wrote his radar showed the Charger was going 90 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone.
Moulden wrote he turned around at Old State Road 37 and tried to catch up to the Charger when it turned right onto the Ind. 45/46 Bypass. Moulden wrote he flashed his emergency lights and siren and the Charger made a quick turn into the apartment complex at 2036 N. Walnut Street. Moulden wrote the Charger continued moving at a high rate of speed and disregarded a stop sign within the complex before finally pulling into a parking spot on the southeast-side of the complex. At that point, Moulden wrote he saw Johnson get out of the car and change seats with Indiana University student Lee Mariotti, who he wrote was sitting in the back of the car. Parker Stewart, a starting guard for Indiana last season who transferred to Tennessee-Martin, was also in the car. Johnson at the time denied that he had been driving according to the probable cause affidavit, though the Charger was registered to his family and he had the keys in his pocket.
In court Tuesday, Johnson acknowledged he was driving and going at a dangerously high rate of speed.
Johnson averaged 12.1 points and 5.1 assists per game for the Hoosiers in 2021-22, his first season at Indiana after playing three seasons at Pittsburgh. Johnson, who played his high school basketball in northern Virginia, has one year of eligibility remaining and will battle with freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino to be IU's starting point guard again this season.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU basketball: Xavier Johnson pleads guilty to reckless driving
